Transitioning to the new version of Front: March 2019

We're thrilled to introduce you to the new version of Front! We've worked hard to make sure the new Front is faster, more intuitive, and better than ever. The Front web and desktop apps have been completely rewritten in a new coding framework, to help your actions in Front feel instantaneous ⚡️This new foundation will enable us to build more new features, faster.

If you use the Front desktop app, be sure to quit and restart your app before your transition and update your app when prompted. That way, you're ready to get the latest version when it's released!

New app workflows

See all your conversations in one place

Your Inboxbrings together all the conversations you're involved in: assigned to you, @mentions, or private emails if you manage them in Front. Rather than checking your old Following section or Notification Center separately, you'll just check your Inbox.

Instead of following, you'll subscribe to conversation updates When you're subscribed to a conversation, you'll see new replies and comments show up in your Inbox in the Shared with me section.

If you don't need to see the latest conversation activity, click the bell icon to Mute the conversation. Muting silences a conversation until you're @mentioned again, so it stays archived for you even when there's new activity. You can find your muted conversations in your All folder.

Think of subscribing and muting as the new version of "following" and "unfollowing"!

You can archive in your Inbox without impacting your teammates When you're working on a conversation with multiple participants, you can archive or snooze it just for yourself, and it won't impact your teammates' workflow. The conversation will stay in their inbox until they archive or snooze it themselves, so they can see the latest comment or reply.

Manage who's involved in the participants menu Wondering who else is working on the conversation? Use the new participants menu to see who's involved. Whenever a teammate has replied, commented on, or subscribed to the conversation, you'll see them in this menu.

If a teammate has muted, you'll need to @mention them again for the conversation to pop up again in their inbox to see new comments or replies. You can also see when participants have last read the message, you know whether or not they've seen the latest.

Smart merging of duplicate conversations When you and a teammate are both cc'ed on a conversation, Front will automatically merge those conversations when you @mention each other. That way, you don't end up with duplicate copies in your inbox.

However, maintaining your privacy is critical. When there’s conflicting information in one of the copies, like if you’ve already @mentioned your manager, Front will not automatically merge your conversations when a teammate @mentions you.

Streamline your work with more powerful rules Rules can now trigger other rules! Now that multiple rules can trigger in a sequence, you can create master "escalation" rules that are triggered by actions done by other rules. You'll also be able to customize your rules further with new AND/OR conditions.

Transition process

We're working to move customers to the new version of Front as quickly as we can! After our initial release on October 30th, we'll be continuing to transition customers to the new app through the end of March. We are migrating customers on a rolling basis throughout each week.

Communication

We'll send an email to account admins leading up to your transition window. The day you get the new version, we'll send everyone on your team a confirmation email!

Prep steps

Keep an eye out for those emails and banners to learn your transition date.

If you use rules, check for potential matches where rules could trigger each other. This will be possible in the new version of Front, so you may want to adjust or disable rules where you don't want them to trigger in a sequence.

Quit and restart your desktop app and update your app if you're prompted to. That way, you're ready to get the latest version.

Clean up your Following folder. Unfollow conversations you don't need, and encourage assignees to archive conversations they've handled. These conversations will start coming to your inbox when there is new activity, so cleaning up Following now can help ensure a smooth transition.

Get excited 🙌

Accessing the new app

On your transition date, you can log into app.frontapp.com or your desktop app as usual. When we make the switch for your team on our end, you'll see the new version of Front automatically.

You'll need to be running the most current version of Front to see the changes, but otherwise the transition will happen automatically. If you don't see the new version of Front and you've received an email saying your team has been switched, please try refreshing or restarting your app first and follow the prompts to update. On a Mac, you can also "Check for updates" in your app settings menu.

Jack Sellwood Hi Jack! All Front companies have been scheduled into our migration schedule, and your admins should have received communication about that, so check your email! If you have questions, just reply to the email :)

Is there a way to adjust the color/background/theme of Front after the new update? I'm finding the mac app almost unusable with the all-white color scheme. It's hard on the eyes and our team isn't a fan.

Thanks for reaching out! We are definitely considering building support for a dark theme option in the future, and will let you know when it is on our roadmap! Feel free to check in with us should you have additional questions by using our "contact us" form on this Help Center.